


Ways To Be Wicked

by msmaj



Category: Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Halloween, Lilly Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 05:04:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20222272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msmaj/pseuds/msmaj
Summary: If you asked Lilly Kane what her favorite holiday was she'd have easily said Halloween. Unless, of course, you asked her mid-October. This year she might have a very different answer.





	Ways To Be Wicked

**Author's Note:**

> Very excited to be writing again and so very happy to have a little something for Bondo and MKT's Lilly lives collection! Hopefully, you like it too :)
> 
> Many thanks, as always, to Bondopolous for her fantastic beta-ing and fabulous friendship! I would never get ANYWHERE if it weren't for your kind words and incredible suggestions.

Lilly Kane was not typically a procrastinator. Not while trying to manage the marketing and social media departments of Kane Software, nor when it came to her daughter Olive. Except, maybe, just this one time. When she had volunteered she thought she’d have the time available, and the ability to spare a brain cell or two, but somehow every time she sat down to brainstorm she simply could not. With a resigned sigh, she commanded her car to make a phone call. 

_ “You have reached the voicemail of Duncan Kane…” _

Not surprising, Lilly supposed, but it would be nice if the congressman-elect would answer the phone for his sister. She tried the next name.

_ "This is Veronica Mars, please leave…” _She ended the call before the message could finish, her thumbs tapping anxiously on the wheel. Ah, court, that’s right, she groaned. Veronica had only been talking about this case for three weeks but Lilly had been preoccupied—mostly by her inability to come up with any semblance of a good idea.

_ “If you’re hearing his message you know what to do. But before you go, HP Lovecraft reminds us..” _

“No, no, no,” she muttered as Logan’s voicemail message came to an end. Taking a deep breath, Lilly straightened in her seat having sunk down in her frustration. Each unanswered call was seconds ticking off a clock she hadn’t realized was counting down in double-time. The red traffic light at least afforded her the time to compose herself to make the last call. 

Three rings in and the dread started to rise. _ Please please please… _

“Lilly-pad!!” 

“DICK!” In that moment, Lilly Kane was sure she was the least composed she’d ever been in her entire life. “I’m so fucking happy you answered!” 

Now, Lilly had known Dick Casablancas for nearly twenty years, would consider him a friend—albeit begrudgingly sometimes—but right now she couldn’t believe he hadn’t been her first thought.

“Now, now Lil, I know you kept your last name but you’re still married, and while I am exactly that kind of person, I actually like Roger. I’ll have to pass—”

“What? No, Dick. Just, no. Ew,” she shuddered. “I do need your help though.”

He sighed dramatically. “Fine, what can Dick do for you?”

Laughing despite herself she replied. “It’s Olive’s kindergarten Halloween party. I volunteered to do the classroom and I completely blanked. Me! Lilly Kane can’t throw a party for five-year-olds!” 

The sound of his laughter filled her BMW X5. She narrowed her eyes at the dash and tightened her grip on the wheel. “It’s not funny.”

“Oh, but it is,” he managed to get out between chuckles. “Meet me at the Halloween store in an hour.” 

The phone disconnected leaving Lilly to re-evaluate every single decision she had made in her entire life. She was known for her parties; lavish, opulent affairs that had full-page spreads in lifestyle magazines. But kindergarten? What did kids even like?

She had one, obviously, and knew what her daughter liked, but this was many kids that she had to please. It couldn’t be too scary—which was where all her ideas seemed to lean—nor could it be too cutesy. It was Halloween after all. Lilly Kane could deal with a lot, but taking all the spooks and scares out of Halloween wasn’t something she could abide. Even if it did mean offending some parents delicate sensibilities. 

Which is why she was in the predicament she was in. Her husband had vetoed, sometimes vehemently, every single idea she’d had. His idea of Halloween was Jell-o brains and peeled grape eyeballs. Probably because that was every single child's Halloween party he’d ever seen. 

But she was Lilly Kane, dammit. And this party had to be magnificent.

* * *

“So what seems to be the problem?” Lilly sighed, tightening the high ponytail she wore to the point of discomfort. “Didn’t you throw like, the ‘world’s best’ Halloween party two years ago?”

“Yes, I did, hence why this is so difficult!” She stood in front of the wall of masks, the smell of cheap rubber burning her nostrils. The store carried the gamut—from horrific to kitschy—and absolutely nothing seemed to fill the very specific parameters she’d set in her own mind. 

Dick tossed his head to get the shaggy blonde hair out of his eyes. He was staring at her, appraising, judging. She haughtily crossed her arms in front of her, head cocked to the side, looking as offended as she could muster.

“You’ve overthought this big time, Lady Kane.” He shook his head and walked over toward where the kid’s costumes were displayed. After he’d taken a few steps, and she was able to compose herself (though did the desire to slap Dick ever really leave?) and join him amongst the mass-produced cacophony that was Halloween. 

Costumes had come a long way from Lilly’s youth. Even if hers had always been tailormade, she remembered well the cheap plastic masks and apron-like garb of her classmates. These superheroes were imbued with foam musculature and intricate details. Even the classics, witches and princesses, were so much more visually striking—crinolines and glitter and all sorts of fancy accoutrements— than the simple shift dresses they used to be. It was easy to get lost in the fantasy.

She found Dick between two gnarling, twisted trees, looking smugly at the display in front of him. Shaking her head emphatically, she sauntered into his periphery, hands perched on akimbo hips, annoyance and frustration not at all being hidden by her YSL pencil skirt and blouse. A professional—though she surely looked every bit of the sixteen-year-olds energy she was channeling—reduced to stomping her foot at her companion.

“Care to share with the class. Mr. Casablancas? Or am I just to glean your brilliance through some kind of mental osmosis?” 

Dick turned his head to look at her, just for a moment, before throwing his gaze back to the wall before them. Incredulous, Lilly pressed a gentle hand to her temples, breathing slowly before opening her mouth. 

“Do you remember watching ‘The Black Cauldron’ at one of those backyard parties you and DK had when we were kids?”

She nodded. “What about it?”

“That was the first time I’d ever been, like, scared. Disney movies were supposed to be these happy, bright fantasies but I remember having to have the housekeeper sit with me until I fell asleep for weeks after that. It was even longer before I could sleep with the light off. I don’t know, man, it really fucked with my head.”

“Okay, I’m still really not seeing where this is going. That movie is like _ ancient _. I don’t think Olive’s seen it let alone her classmates.”

Dick let out a long, whining breath from his nose. “Do you not see this wall? Does your daughter not watch television—” Lilly opened her mouth but Dick continued to speak over her. “Spare me the idealized nonsense of a no-to-low-tech childhood. Your dad owns a software company; you had the prototype for a smart house.”

“And?” Lilly was getting nowhere fast. She could feel her heart rate steadily rising. Why did she think ever asking Dick Casablancas for advice was a good idea? About to walk away before she said or did something she may regret she actually saw what Dick was so intently looking at. 

Against the backdrop of black, the greens and blues and pinks stood out so boldly she didn’t know how she overlooked it in the first place. She took a step forward, pulling a spotted piece of fabric between her fingers and looked incredulously back at Dick who had pulled one of the silver wigs from the wall and placed it haphazardly on his head. 

“The Descendants? This is your big idea?”

“This is one of the biggest kids things like...ever. Or...this month, whatever. You know how kids are. My point is, Ms. Lilly, even I know that this is HOT. And if you take it a step further, draw inspiration from the originals, you’ll have a super spooky soiree that those little time wasters will adore.”

“Originals?” Lilly could practically feel the wheels turning in her head; enchanted forests, noble quests, goblin-like foes, poisoned apples, castles and dragons and…

Could it really be this simple? “Holy shit,” an absolutely dumbfounded Lilly Kane mumbled in the middle of the children’s costumes. Shaking off her disbelief, she extended a perfectly manicured hand and clasped Dick on the shoulder. “Well partner, looks like we’ve got one week to pull this off.”

“Wait, we?”

* * *

It was here. The Day. Halloween. Not only was Miss Brunner’s class festooned with professionally (and hastily) crafted trees and cottage facades, but the entirety of the kindergarten pod looked as if Disney’s own elves and faeries helped to transform the rooms. 

Lilly stood back admiring the handiwork; the entrance to the pod was surrounded in faux thorny bushes that could have come straight off the stills of ‘Sleeping Beauty’, the pod itself housed the ferocious dragon (though perhaps fur-ocious might be more apt, as the school’s therapy dog was dressed in green-sparkly scales, much to his apparent dismay). 

Soon the kids would come, dressed in all their Halloween glory, and hopefully be as enchanted as the rooms that surrounded them. Lilly’s anxiety flaring, she paced the room, her full horns and long cape giving the impression that she was truly a force to be reckoned with. 

“Dang Lilly Kane, you’re gonna scare the kids before the bell even rings!” Dick came waddling through the thorny tunnel in his crow costume, carrying a box of cupcakes between his wings. 

“Now, now Diablo,” she said in her fiercest Maleficent voice, “wouldn’t want these kiddos to see their special treats before the party commences do we?”

Dick rolled his eyes, cawing as he walked away. Lilly smiled deviantly, leaning on her staff as she turned back toward the hall. She could hear the hurried footsteps as they neared the kindergarten pod and felt the excitement within her grow. Olive had no idea what her mother and Uncle Dick had done, and as Lilly watched, her daughter’s chalk purple hair came into her line of sight, eyes and smile so wide Lilly had to suppress the urge to cry.

“Mommy!!!” Olive, dressed as Mal herself, threw herself into her mother’s arms. “This is so cool! How did you know this would be the BEST Halloween ever??” Her daughter held onto her hand as they walked to her teacher’s room.

“Well, my wicked little princess, Mommy had no idea. She had to ask a very special friend for help,” Lilly pointed her staff across the room, her confused daughter following the movement until her eyes locked on a very large, very round blackbird.

“UNCLE DICKIE!!” Olive left her mother’s side and crashed into her pseudo-uncle, effectively knocking him to the ground. Her daughter’s laughter echoed around the room as she perched herself on Dick’s rotund belly. “How did you get my mom to do something so awesome?”

“Well kid, it wasn’t easy. For some reason, no one ever wants to listen to your Uncle Dick.”


End file.
